1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for cutting continuously advancing strands or logs of soft pliable material including cookie dough, sausage, bananas, gelatinous materials, putty, clay, or other continuous strand material made from soft pliable material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art contains a number of devices and apparatus for cutting continuous strands of dough such as cookie dough which are subsequently baked into finished cookies. One such type of prior art cutting device is known as a guillotine cutter and uses a vertically reciprocating knife blade for cutting the strands of pastry dough passing beneath the cutter on a conveyor belt; such reciprocating knife blades tend to frictionally rub on the advancing end of the log resulting in squashing or distorting of the end of the advancing log producing slices which are substantially out of round. Another type of cutter known as guillotine bar cutter is used for cutting continuous strands of flat unbaked products, such as food bars, into individual pieces prior to baking; a heavy knife bar is mechanically driven to pinch the strand into pieces and momentarily follows the conveyor belt travel with a rocking motion while in the extended position to minimize product damage. A further device known as a wire cut machine is used for cutting cookie dough into individual pieces and depositing them on an oven band for baking; the cookie dough being continuously extruded through orifices and the wire cutter passing over the orifices to sever slices from the extruding dough. The wire contacts the die surface on the cutting stroke and indexes away from the die before returning to the start position.